I would only add that while a few people have admonished the original questioner about transmitting without a license, I would point out that the FCC allows transmissions on ANY FREQUENCY at ANY TIME by ANYONE (including unlicensed operators) for a true emergency.

But I would also add that if you did not use the radio regularly, especially for some of the new radios, and not knowing about repeaters, duplex operation, calling frequencies and such, you would be picking a REALLY Bad time to try to mount the learning curve for such things. . .

BTW, yes I am licensed (K0WHH). And I need to sit down and take the pesky General exam!

Regards,
Wesley